Tamron 70-300 f4 VC, for use on an APS-C Canon for Birding?

[steveb57]

I'm considering the Tamron 70-300 f4 VC, for use on an APS-C Canon as an entry into bird photography. Do you think the focal length would be sufficient? I think it relates to about 480mm FF. Longer focal length lenses are getting just a bit expensive for my budget.
Thanks for all the info in this thread, very helpful

Steve

[Papou]

G'day Steve, mate i purchased this lens prior to my purchasing the 100-400L as i had a nesting Honeyeater outside of my pergola and whilst it didnt do too bad a job i couldnt get what i had hoped for with it..Mindyou i was using it with a full frame Camera so maybe for you it might get better reach as well as performance with Aps C??..
Purchase was a spur of the moment out of a Joyce maine store and couldnt resist the temptation lol..
One thing i will say though, if you can afford it go the canon 100-400L..

[nardes]

Hi Steve

My personal experience is that for birds in the back garden the 300mm is fine but if you want to take photos of birds in the wild and especially birds in flight, you will usually require at least 400mm to get the image scale you require.

In my experience even with a 400mm lens you need to be within say 10 metres of small birds such as Kingfishers to get a reasonable image scale.

From what I have read on various birding forums, 400mm seems to be the lower limit and often even that is not enough focal length!

Another important requirement is speed of auto focus for active birds and especially for birds in flight.

I suspect that if you get the 300mm and get bitten by the birding bug, it won’t be too long before you’re looking at 400mm lenses?

Cheers

Dennis